1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of wireless devices, and more particularly relates to manipulating an electronic object shared by two wireless devices.
2. Background of the Invention
Mobile communication devices are in widespread use throughout the world, and are especially popular in metropolitan regions. Initially these devices facilitated mobile telephony, but more recently these devices have begun providing many other services and functions.
Developers have been creating applications for use on mobile communication devices that allow users to perform various tasks. For example, presently mobile communication devices having cameras are popular in the marketplace. These devices allow a user to take a picture or even a short video clip with the mobile communication device. The image or video can be viewed on the mobile communication device and transmitted to others. In addition, mobile communication devices are becoming more and more robust in the sense of processing abilities, with many handheld devices having the capability to run local and/or network applications. In particular, multimedia capabilities over data network services have become very popular and allow users the ability to interact with each other over networks by, for example, sending and receiving (“sharing”) pictures, drawings, sounds, video, files, programs, email and other text messages, browsing content on wide area networks like the Internet, and so on.
While interacting, which includes maintaining a conversation over a wireless channel between two users, one user may wish to manipulate a shared object on his or her wireless communication device and communicate that manipulation to another user by graphically showing the same manipulation to the same object on the second user's device. For example, a first and second user may be viewing identical graphic representations of a chair through a display on their mobile telephones. The first user may wish to rotate the chair 90 degrees and have the chair on second user's device follow the same rotation.
Although systems for mobile media exchange exist, the ability to manipulate shared content by the involved parties in real or quasi-real-time does not exist. Current transport mechanisms for sharing media from mobile devices do not expedite or prioritize such interactivity. At best, existing media delivery systems can script such actions but only prior to, the initial media exchange. The inherent delays in current media distribution systems further break the shared user experience and hinder the potential for enhanced or rich communications. Thus, there is a need for rapid peer-to-peer interactivity with exchanged content supported in the context of mixed-mode communications—such as the intermixing of voice and data.